ISTANBUL

French lawmakers on Thursday criticized National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet’s remarks in which she objected to young visitors wearing headscarves inside the parliament.

"At the very heart of the hemicycle of the National Assembly, where the 2004 law on secularism in schools was in particular voted on, it seems unacceptable to me that young children can wear ostentatious religious signs in the galleries," Braun-Pivet wrote on the US social media X.

Her statement came after the editorial director of Frontieres Media shared a photo showing several young girls wearing headscarves at the National Assembly.

"FIVE VEILED WOMEN, some of whom appear to be VERY YOUNG, are PRESENT in the hemicycle at the National Assembly as visitors," David Alaime said.

Braun-Pivet noted that she called on everyone to exercise "extreme vigilance so that this does not happen again."

Aymeric Caron, MP from the far-left France Unbowed (LFI), found Braun-Pivet's statement "Islamophobic," underlining that she brings shame upon herself by "adding an imaginary rule, disrespectful of the rights of the citizens of this country."

"Tonight, the President of the National Assembly validates the racist publication of a far-right 'media' outlet that engages every day in hunting Muslims," Thomas Portes of LFI also said.

Antoine Leaument, another member of the LFI, explained that no law prohibits wearing the veil in the assembly.

"In the temple of the French Republic, we do not spread Islamophobia: we uphold public and individual freedoms. Shame on you," Leaument further said.